202 CUCULIFORMES CHAP. 
docile, and long-lived pets of gorgeous coloration and amusing 
habits. The red-tailed Grey Parrot of Africa (Psittacus erithacus) 
is considered the best talker, yet, apart from individual ability, 
many species of Palacornis, Chrysotis, and other genera, are equally 
clever, if we cannot say intelligent. Professor Skeat identifies 
the name Parrot with the French Pierrot; but, however that may 
be, Indian species have been known in Europe since the time of 
Alexander the Great, and one or more African forms were kept 
in ornamental cages, and even eaten, at Rome under Nero. 
In default of a really satisfactory arrangement we may accept 
that of Dr. Gadow,' who agrees in the main with Count 
Salvadori, and recognises the Family Psittacidae, with Sub- 
families Stringopinae, Psittacinae, and Cacatuinae; and the Family 
Trichoglossidae, with Cyclopsittacinae, Loriinae, and Nestorinae. 
There are in all about eighty genera containing some five hundred 
species, but the variety arises chiefly from colour, while the beak 
alone would sufficiently determine the Family. This feature is 
usually short and stout, with strongly arched maxilla and man- 
dible, the former being moveable and hinged to the skull, and 
the latter truncated. In Nestor and Loriculus the curve is more 
gradual and the depth less; in the Cyclopsittacinae and some 
Psittacinae the bill is distinctly notched; in the Stringopinae, 
Nestorinae, and other Psittacinae it is grooved; while a file-like 
surface with transverse ridges, below the overhanging hooked tip, 
distinguishes the Psittacidae from the Trichoglossidae. At the 
base is generally a large swollen cere, or a similar but very narrow 
band in various Psittacinae; in the Platycercine group this is 
very small, and it is more or less hidden by feathers in certain 
Psittacinae, Cacatuinae, Cyclopsittacinae, and Nestorinae. The feet 
are permanently zygodactylous, the metatarsus being short—except 
in Ground-Parrots—compressed, and covered with rugose scales. 
The abbreviated rounded wings of the terrestrial Stringops, where 
the keel of the sternum is correspondingly reduced, are compara- 
tively useless; while these members, though usually moderate, 
may be long, as in Nasiterna and Cacatua, or more acute, as im 
the Loriinae; the primaries are ten in number, the secondaries 
from eight to fourteen. The tail varies much, being short and 
square with projecting spiny shafts in Nasiterna, longer with 
1 Bronn’s Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Theil, 1893, pp. 221, 222. 
2 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xx. 1891, pp. vii. 2. 
